1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates generally to imaging devices, and, more particularly, to those systems and methods for determining operating parameters for an imaging device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Incorrectly setting media type is a well-documented problem for users of imaging devices, such as electrophotographic printers. Setting media properties correctly is difficult for three primary reasons. First, properly identifying media is a subjective decision. Second, paper setting menus are sometimes difficult to locate and navigate. Third, classification of equivalent media is inconsistent. Additionally, media moisture content and environmental factors may invalidate correctly chosen settings. As a consequence of this, it is common for imaging devices to operate suboptimally.
There are consequences to improperly selected media type settings. The imaging device relies upon media type settings to control media handling, transfer, and fusing. Common failures related to improper media type settings include poor print quality, poor fusing, hot or cold offset, paper jams, media damage, component wear, and wrapping of the fuser by the media. This leads to user dissatisfaction.
To address this problem, several solutions that incorporate some form of printer control based upon sensed media properties have been developed. Prior art sensor implementations describe devices that measure a single media property, or at most, a few specific properties, such as optical density and impedance, to provide limited media identification. Prior art control schemes are limited in scope and are based upon an incomplete characterization of the media. Such prior art systems still rely upon user input and lack a holistic approach. An idealized, fully-featured sensing scheme would take a single, direct measurement of all relevant intrinsic media properties and use this information to model and control the imaging device. However, the number of intrinsic property measurements required to adequately control an imaging device, such as an electrophotographic printer, without user input is prohibitive as this approach is neither cost nor space efficient and requires a large number of sensors. Prior art sensing schemes have been incomplete because they have failed to measure some number of intrinsic properties of the media needed to more accurately determine the media type.
It would be advantageous to employ an approach to use sensor information about media and the imaging device environment to move directly to determining imaging device operating parameters instead of relying on a determined media type to select those operating parameters. The advantage of this type of approach not only arises from the fact that media is not inherently a given type, but also that there is variation within each type. A damp piece of media behaves fundamentally differently than a dry piece of the same media—whether that property is electrical, mechanical or has to do with heat capacity.
Media type classification schemes use different sets of sensors in order to be able to determine different media types. Typically, as the variety of media used increases, the number of sensors needed also increases. It would also be advantageous to provide a single sensor set where the information provided can all be combined to help predict operating parameters on a continuous scale. It would be still further advantageous if the operating parameter can be established without the need for user input.